Pedal power

By Lia Bichel
A NOBLE PARK cyclist and three work colleagues used pedal power to learn a lesson about energy at a Green Cities 2010 conference last weekend.
Matthew Webb, who works at South Yarra’s consulting engineers company Umow Lai, participated in a challenge aimed at raising awareness about generating energy and energy consumption.
He was joined by Umow Lai director and head of the firm’s sustainability team Shane Esmore, Damon Moloney and Chris Walker.
The team had their bikes connected to a dynamometer and a generator which calculated how much energy they were burning while they cycled.
They generated 132.1 watt hours in 10 minutes which Mr Watt said was equivalent to enough energy to run a laptop for two hours.
They came fourth out of 36 teams.
Mr Webb said the competition was relevant to the team at Umow Lai.
“The sustainability team looks at design initiatives for energy efficiency,” he said.
Mr Webb said the results illustrated the amount of energy people consume in their daily lives.
“It’s crazy that four of us working together only generated enough power to run a laptop for two hours,” he said.
“The key thing is that when comparing how much energy humans produce every day and how much is required to go about our daily lives – we would be hard pressed without generating capacities.”
The competition was held at the AE Smith Business Centre and Internet Café which was set up as part of the Green Cities 2010 conference held at the Melbourne Convention Centre on 22 and 23 February.